Institutions · Marginalization · Lived experience
I study how institutions shape the lives of people affected by forced displacement. This research began in refugee camps in Lebanon, where I grew up before moving to France at seventeen.
Since then, I have worked with organizations helping refugees find work in Finland and civil society groups resisting state pressure in Hungary. I am interested in how people’s experience is recognized, the opportunities available to them, and how they respond when institutions constrain their lives.
I am a Full Professor at IÉSEG School of Management, where I head the Management & Society Department, and Vice Chair of EGOS.
About me
I grew up in Lebanon and moved to France at seventeen. Moving between social worlds made me attentive to how we learn what is expected of us, which parts of ourselves we make visible, and which we learn to keep quiet.
Institutional theory gave me a vocabulary for those experiences. My early research explored how organizations navigate competing demands, how identity shapes their responses, and how established hierarchies are maintained through everyday practices.
Working with refugees, aid workers, and civil society organizations changed the questions I wanted to ask. I became increasingly concerned with how institutions are lived: what they make possible, what they close off, and the emotional and moral costs they impose.
These experiences have led me toward a more critical institutionalism, attentive to power, history, racialization, and inequality. They have also made me question how my own background shapes my research and what our theories overlook.
“Finding my scholarly voice has been inseparable from recovering parts of myself I had learned to silence.”From my habilitation thesis (2026)
Defended at Université Paris-Dauphine–PSL on 18 September 2026, this thesis traces the evolution of my research and the questions that guide it.
Read my HDR thesis (PDF, 1.1 MB)
I study institutions through the experiences of those who live with their consequences.
How do people rebuild a life after forced displacement? I study how institutions recognize or disregard their past experience, constrain their futures, and shape the support available to them. This work includes refugee camps in Lebanon and organizations supporting professional integration in Europe.
How do civil society organizations work together when the conditions for collective action are under attack? My research in Hungary examines how organizations with different priorities build and sustain coalitions under state pressure.
How does social purpose take shape in practice? How do people sustain meaningful work amid crisis? These questions run through my research on nonprofit organizations and on aid workers in Lebanon.
How are exclusionary arrangements maintained, and how can well-intentioned policies also cause harm? I examine how institutional practices and categories shape whose experience counts, who gains access to opportunities, and who bears the costs of policy.
A commitment that guides my work
Many of my research questions emerged from interviews. I try to take seriously what people tell me, including experiences that do not fit the theories I work with.
2026 · Organization Science · 37(3), 839–865
Farah Kodeih, Henri Schildt, Emma Sandström, Davide Ravasi & Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä
A study of how a nonprofit’s purpose evolves as volunteers’ work with beneficiaries challenges the founders’ initial vision.
Watch the videoFarah Kodeih, Mia Raynard & Hong T. M. Bui
2026 · In Cultural Marginalization in Communities and Organizations: Seeds for Peace, edited by Innan Sasaki & Sofiane Baba · Research in the Sociology of Organizations · 103, 111–137
Henri Schildt & Farah Kodeih
2025 · Organization Theory · 6(2)
Hani Tarabichi, Henri Schildt & Farah Kodeih
2025 · Research Policy · 54(6), 105255
Farah Kodeih, Henri Schildt & Thomas B. Lawrence
2023 · Organization Studies · 44(2), 175–199
Responsible Research in Management Award
Mia Raynard, Farah Kodeih & Royston Greenwood
2021 · Organization Studies · 42(1), 7–33
Farah Kodeih & Royston Greenwood
2014 · Organization Studies · 35(1), 7–39
Royston Greenwood, Mia Raynard, Farah Kodeih, Evelyn Micelotta & Michael Lounsbury
2011 · Academy of Management Annals · 5(1), 317–371
Academy of Management Annals Decade Award
Shaista E. Khilji, Juliana Mainard-Sardon, Chaïma Benzekri, Farah Kodeih & Bernardo de La Vega
Forthcoming · Reimagining work, workers, and workplaces · Book information
Mia Raynard, Farah Kodeih & Diane-Laure Arjaliès
2025 · Organization Studies · 46(12), 1673–1706
Marieke van der Giessen, Anastasiia Koptsyukh, Farah Kodeih, Shumaila Alkhaled, Alla Poberezhna & Monica W. den Boer
2025 · Journal of Business Venturing Insights · 24, e00559
Henri Schildt, Farah Kodeih & Hani Tarabichi
2021 · Research in the Sociology of Organizations · 71, 117–144
Farah Kodeih, Hamid Bouchikhi & Valérie Gauthier
2019 · Organization Studies · 40(7), 995–1023
Farah Kodeih
2016 · Journal of Management Development · 35(2), 280–292
Farah Kodeih
Edited by Drori, Höllerer & Walgenbach
2013 · Global themes and local variations in organization and management · Routledge
Essays and articles on research, responsibility, and the experiences that inform my work.
Kodiko · 2026 · Research report · In French
Farah Kodeih & Joanna Seraphim
Drawing on in-depth interviews with 70 refugees who took part in Kodiko’s mentoring programme, Joanna Seraphim and I examined their experiences before, during, and after the programme.
Read about the study on Kodiko’s websiteHEC Research Center for Grand Challenges · 2026
Farah Kodeih
Skimle · 2026
Henri Schildt & Farah Kodeih
The Conversation France · 2024 · In French
Simone Moriconi, Farah Kodeih & Juan Munoz Morales
Also available on IÉSEG InsightsOxford Answers, Saïd Business School · 2023
Farah Kodeih, Henri Schildt & Thomas Lawrence
Aalto University News · 2020
Farah Kodeih & Henri Schildt
I teach International Business Strategies and Business & Human Rights at IÉSEG. Across both courses, I encourage students to consider how strategic choices affect people, communities, and the environment.
This course explores how firms enter new markets, organize across borders, and respond to technological and geopolitical change. We examine emerging markets, global innovation, digital platforms, and AI, alongside the capabilities and choices that shape international expansion.
Several sessions focus on environmental and social sustainability, including global supply chains and human rights. We discuss where international growth conflicts with these responsibilities and what firms can do in response.
This course examines how business activities affect human rights and what responsibility companies have for those impacts. Students engage with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and learn to identify risks, assess impacts, and develop responses through human rights due diligence.
Topics include labour and migrant workers’ rights, land and Indigenous rights, environmental impacts, technology, and business in conflict-affected settings. Cases, role plays, and impact assessments connect ethical and legal questions with concrete managerial decisions.
I ask students to explain their reasoning and consider the perspectives of people affected by the decisions they propose.
Doctoral supervision
I work with doctoral researchers on theory, methods, and writing, while also paying attention to how they experience fieldwork. I work with doctoral researchers to develop their questions and reflect on how their own histories and positions shape what they see and the claims they make.
Developing a clear argument, a thoughtful research design, and a careful relationship between evidence and theory.
Attention to position, access, trust, and interpretation throughout the research process.
Supporting researchers in developing the questions they want to pursue and finding their own way of thinking and writing about them.
IÉSEG School of Management · Since September 2025
As Head of the Management & Society Department, I work with colleagues across the Paris and Lille campuses on teaching, research, and the department’s development. Much of the role is practical: supporting colleagues and coordinating teaching.
European Group for Organizational Studies
I have served on the EGOS Board since 2024 and as Vice Chair since July 2025. Through EGOS, I have met many of my co-authors and close friends. On the Board, I work to support opportunities for scholars to meet, exchange ideas, and develop collaborations.
My EGOS Board role and responsibilities
Get in touch
You’re welcome to get in touch about research collaborations, doctoral supervision, or speaking engagements.
f.kodeih@ieseg.fr